Encourage your children to be different.

There are a number of passages that clearly teach that God commands his people to be a holy people, e.g. 1 Peter 1:16. There are many ways to describe holiness. One of the most basic is to understand that being holy means being different. Holiness is being distinct from the world. If we are to love God we must be constantly aware that he is holy. He is different. This is what we are to model for our children as we bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Today, the prevailing mood of our political leaders is that we should not be defined by our differences, we should be strengthened by them.  A Christian has a different view. A Christian must be defined by his differences. A Christian is to be chaste and pure. A Christian is to return good for evil. A Christian is to follow the teaching of Scripture and not follow the basic teaching of human tradition and philosophy. A Christian is to be sensitive, not sensual. A Christian is to see Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the light, not a way, a truth, and a light. In short a Christian is to be distinct from the world. A Christian is to be holy.

The challenge is be different in way that honors God and brings good to us. If parents believe that being holy is not fun, not interesting – in fact, boring, this is the attitude towards holiness that will be passed on to their children. This is the way the world wants holiness to be understood – as drab, boring, and uneventful. However, being holy is anything but uneventful. Being holy means to actively pursue a relationship with the most powerful being in our universe. Being holy requires boldness, courage, and a sense of adventure. Being holy means being different. Being holy means to be love power over weakness. Being holy means to be different in a way that changes lives and confronts evil.

How do you present holiness to your children? Do they think being different is stupid and dull? In fact, being different, being holy, is what makes life worth living. Being different means that you take hold of life that is truly life.  Nothing that you our children can desire can compete with awesome power of living a life that is holy, a life that is different.

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